Walking Away For Jesus

This is Robbie Dilmore from The Christian Car Guy and Kingdom Pursuit, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build a kingdom. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it and share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Well, I'm going to welcome you back to another week of It's Time to Man Up with Shatoah Ta, the Russian nightmare. Well, the devil's worst nightmare, Nikita Kolov. I have a question for you. If God asked you to walk away from a 20-year career and do something completely different, would you do it? Well, my guest today, Frank Mickens, is a revivalist and evangelist committed to taking the power of Jesus Christ all over the world. He's the founder of Faith Fire, serving the Lord as a preacher and a worship leader and a prophetic voice for the modern day.

Boy, do we need that. Frank brings with him 20 years of experience in the television news industry, where he worked as an investigative reporter and an anchor. Well, he and I can certainly relate right there, but in January of 2020, the Lord clearly spoke to him, gave him a directive, and asked him if he would step away from that career and step into something completely new. Frank, welcome into the studio. Welcome to It's Time to Man Up. I can't believe I'm here with Nikita Kolov.

I still can't believe it. I've had to keep a lid on my love for you for the years. Your enthusiasm? Yeah, man. So you were a professional wrestling fan? I was. The heyday, absolutely.

The Sting era, the Nikita Kolov era, the junkyard dog era, all of that. Come on, JYD. So remember it well. You know, the great Muda. Wow. Yeah. You know, all those guys. Yeah. So you're bringing up some hearts, some pretty good names.

All right. So the obvious question, being an old, really what I call an old school fan. So and you mentioned some great names. Did you have, just curious, did you have a favorite? You know, Ultimate Warrior came out like, you know, it was like a shot out of a cannon when he showed up. And so I was a Hulk Hogan guy until Ultimate Warrior showed up. And I will tell you, as a child, when he disappeared, I was a bit traumatized because he was one of the heroes for me for that season of my life. And I mean, yeah, but he was probably, you know, it was Hulk, Hulk, Hulk, Hulk, Hulk. And then when Ultimate Warrior showed up, it was just all him. Yeah. Well, and there were certainly, for those who remember that, what we call the golden era of wrestling, you know, whether it's Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Macho Man, Randy Savage. Oh yeah.

Jump into a Slim Jim, dig it. Yeah. You remember that guy?

I still remember WrestleMania when it was Elizabeth in between Hulk and Macho Man. That thing was, that was drama. Wow. You, I mean, that was the best. Yeah. So you got some vivid memories, childhood memories of, well, that's always fun for me. What's fun for me now is to hear those stories. You know, I didn't hear them back then, you know, I'm, I'm caught up in my thing.

Right. And I'm not interacting with fans for the most part back then. I mean, they kept us fairly isolated and away from the fan base.

And there wasn't, you know, the legends, autograph signings and all sorts of things then like there is now. And so it's fun for me. That's why I'm kind of asking a couple of these questions. It's fun for me to hear those kinds of stories and hear from you, you know, what you remember from those days. And I am at the age now where the memory is fading, but those, those days were, there were moments where I'll never, I'll just never forget.

Well, you know, what else is fun though, even on that note is, is there, there'll be times, like I recently met, well, a couple of years ago now, I guess, Lieutenant Dan Forest, Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest. And on my introduction, I mean, he goes, what's your name? And he goes, wait a minute. It was like he was 12 again. Like he might get embarrassed me saying that, but for real, it was like, it was like he became 12 years old again.

And, and he bam, he's just taken right back there. Right. But as a kid, I'm watching this kind of stuff and you're internalizing the hero worship and you start wanting it for yourself. Right. You know, you're like, wow, I want to be appreciated like Nikita Kolov, you know, I mean, I know you were healed, but at the same time, you want to have people cheering for you.

You want to have people knowing your name and all of that kind of thing. So to know you now, you know, the person I think is just a phenomenal testimony to the power of Jesus Christ and your humility, your devotion and commitment to spread the gospel message. I think it's phenomenal because, you know, the world would look at Nikita Kolov, your story, your experiences, you've traveled all over the place. And, and then, wow, that's the, that's the summit. And you're like, dude, you've got no idea. Yeah, it was fun. But, you know.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, speaking of which, you know, in fact, a part of my introduction, you and I do have some similarities or some commonalities, you might say, in this sense, in that you yourself had a 20-year career in television. Now you weren't in the squared circle as we affectionately call it, you know, and wrestling against opponents like Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes and Sting and others. But you had quite a career in television.

Can you, for our listeners, just talk for a minute or two about that? Well, you know, it was a no contact profession. So yeah, yours had a different layer. But yeah, I think there were a lot of similarities because, you know, I wanted to be on ESPN. I wanted to be a sports journalist. I wanted to go network and do all that kind of stuff. And then you start small and you build your way up. But I got to a point in my career where I had been the main anchor in the Triad area in North Carolina and was at the CBS affiliate there.

I was the main anchor for almost a decade. And so you're in promotional, you know, spots and you're on billboards and, you know, you get free meals and people, you know, want to shake your hand and tell you how great you are. And so there's that ego trip that you get. But also there's the community aspect where people want you to be involved in things.

You have access to stuff that you wouldn't ordinarily have access to. And then, you know, the money was good and my wife didn't have to work. And so life was comfortable. And then we left North Carolina, got another job in a larger market in Indianapolis.

You know, it was a great job on paper. The money was good. We were able to start planning for our future. We started thinking about, OK, if we really had, you know, the life that we've always wanted, what would that look like?

And we began to dream about that and dream about traveling the world and all of these kinds of things. This is the American dream, right? You're fulfilling it. You're living it, brother.

I mean, build a new house, you know, basement and bedrooms galore. And it was great until it wasn't. And you really, I really I'll say from my own experience, I really had that moment where I had a collision between what I believe and what I lived. And I had been in ministry and I'd been an ordained minister since 2008. So I'd been doing work in ministry for more than a decade while I was also on television. OK. And so I had used that in ways to share about Jesus Christ and his saving grace and the truth of God and bring spiritual perspective to things that were going on. And then I went to Indianapolis and virtually all of that stopped and it got to a point where it was career, career, career, career, career. How high can you go?

How much can you make? You know, and you start conflating the gospel with your own kingdom. You start thinking blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing. So if it's a blessing or if it's more money than it's a blessing, you start getting into that that perversion of the truth. And and we all know that Jesus says you seek the kingdom first.

That's the whole point. So I had not been doing that. And there was a there was a collision between what I believed and what I was living and came home to that house that was virtually brand new and asked my wife, hey, honey, do you do you feel like we're home? And she thought about it for a second. She's like, you know, I don't.

And neither did I. And that started about a two and a half, three year prayer process where God gently started moving us away from this counterfeit life. Counterfeit joy. Right.

Counterfeit all the other things. Yeah. So you bring up an interesting point, though, that that for those who for those who aren't those who are listening out there. Even though and I want to talk about that in a moment, how, you know, how you came to faith in Christ. But but what you just said about, you know, the pursuit of a loftier goals in your career. It's I think sometimes easy for us to get sidetracked, if you will, and lose the foundation that we have in our relationship with Jesus. And success sometimes can do that, can it? It can steer us off in a sense, you might say, the straight and narrow path or or at least off of our focus on what's ultimately a really important, which is seeking first the kingdom of God. But so that's an interesting point. So we have to we have to be cautious that we're not pursuing success so much that that it hinders our walk with Jesus. Right.

Or gets us off track. But talk talk about that for a minute. How how you came to faith in Christ.

I mean, oh, man, what's that look like? Well, you know, I was one of those people who got baptized as a kid. I was baptized at age eight back home in Jackson, Mississippi. And it was because, you know, the gospel message was clear as day to me. I was a sinner. I needed a savior. And Jesus Christ was the only one that could, you know, check that box. And what happened was I was never discipled.

I never was involved in Bible study. And so I basically spent the rest of my formative years after that, basically doing what I'd always done, being aware, of course, of what sin was. I had the Holy Spirit and so I'd be convicted of sin. But I was like, oh, well, Jesus will forgive me anyway.

And so I kind of. But later in life, I was twenty five years old. I'll never forget up to between the time I was eight and twenty five, I had gotten involved in just a very poor idea of what relationship was, had a sexual addiction, had issues with alcohol. I'd been molested as a child. So there was emotional self-worth issues there. And it started to play out in my personal life, you know, out pretty much every night.

A man about town, because, you know, you're on TV, so you're getting in clubs for free or getting free drinks, you know, all the perks that come with with the stardom. Come on. And so here I am out there and just enjoying it, quote unquote. And I got home one day and my wife, who was then my girlfriend, we had gotten back together.

We're starting to reconnect. And she gave me a copy of Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. And the first for a few words were it's not about you. And I got a few pages in and I was on the floor weeping because I had become aware of the selfishness that I had been living in for virtually my entire life. And it and I said to God, I said, if you're real, because again, I hadn't been discipled, I hadn't been living for the Lord. I was a person that had fire insurance. And I said, if you're real, I give you everything. Because I knew there's no there's no effort that I could extend that would make me who I knew I could become. And so I went back to my faith.

And from that day forward, I could tell you some stories about how God just just renovated my heart, bro. Yeah. Now, Kita Koloff, the Russian nightmare here for Crescent Automotive. If buying a car is a nightmare for you. My friends, Brian and Jamie Johnson at Crescent Automotive make it simple to find your pre-owned dream car with no hassle, affordable windshield pricing. No matter where you live, they will get your American dream car to you, baby. DriveCrescent.com is all you need to know. Their whole inventory is right there with the right price. Everybody drives a Crescent.

You should, too. DriveCrescent.com. All feet agree. Clements carpet is where you need to be with carpet, vinyl, tile and hardwood from the top brands. Clements carpet does it right from beginning to install. Voted number one by you in the Reader's Choice Awards. Doug, Chad, Benny, Kiwi and the team at Clements carpet look forward to seeing and serving you soon.

This is Nikita Koloff, and I want to thank Clements carpet for supporting my new show, Man Up, Saturday afternoon at twelve thirty on the Truth Network. Well, and again, it's interesting. I'm glad you mentioned some of the struggles, because a lot of times, you know, we we we I think we'd rather emphasize or highlight all of the victories in life, more more than the struggles or the challenges that God's brought us through.

And that's not to say certainly it's not like we're trying to put an over emphasis on on on one or the other. But let people know, let our listeners know, let others know that, hey, I am walking in a place of victory. But at the same time, I've gone through a number of different struggles in order to get even where I'm at.

Yes, presently. Right. Well, what would you say if there was one, maybe one struggle that was bigger than another? What's one success story? God helped you overcome a certain struggle for our for our listeners. Well, I think at the core of being a Christian is your identity in Christ and how he puts himself on you when you die to yourself and you accept him. And, you know, you go back to Genesis where where the Lord, you know, he says he looked at us and created us in his image. And I think you could teach a four year seminary class on just that one scripture. And in Jesus, his own words, you know, he was asked if he paid taxes.

He says, of course I do. And then he asked his disciples whose image is on that coin. And they said, it's Caesar's. And they said and then he said, well, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, but render unto God what is God's. And Jesus was saying there that his image is on us. So we owe it back to him. And when you think about God putting his image on us, well, that's spiritual. That's that's a treasure within us that he's put on us that we've got to be aware of. And there's confidence there. There's victory there. And so even though what I might be going through doesn't agree with that, I can walk in it and say, OK, you've already bought the victory for me. What is it I need to do to connect with that victory in my life?

And so, you know, to answer your question, I think for a long time, because I was molested as a young person at seven years old, someone who called themselves my best friends, but wasn't. And so that just really wrecked my identity, really struggled with self-worth, really struggled with self-esteem, became a people pleaser because I wanted to make people laugh. I wanted to make people comfortable. I wanted to be everyone's friend because it made me feel important. It gave me self-worth instead of my worth coming from my relationship with Jesus Christ. And so when he renovated my heart and he began to teach me what he what it means when we say Jesus died on the cross for us, God saw us so valuable.

I mean, we'll spend the rest of eternity trying to figure that out. Right. Absolutely.

Yeah. And so beginning to allow that to minister to my spirit and then get into my heart and into my mind, I began to start making different decisions because I began to see the value, at least as best as I could, the value that that Jesus sees in me, that God sees in me. And I'm thinking, well, if Jesus did this for me and bought it for me, most certainly I need to do what I can by faith to apprehend those promises.

And so I began to make different decisions and listen to different music. I remember the Lord told me to turn off cable. So here I am on television.

Yeah. And I would go home and I had no TV. And you know what I would do?

I would just read the Bible for hours. He gave me a hunger and a thirst after righteousness. And it was when I just surrendered and made him Lord.

Because, you know, a lot of us, let's just be honest, some of us, we know he's our savior, but we have not called him master. Yeah. Fully submitted, fully surrendered, fully yield.

I like what you said. I got my fire insurance. Come on.

Hey, I checked that box. I gave my heart to Jesus. So I've got I've secured my salvation. But when it comes to really relinquishing every aspect of our lives, yielding every aspect, we all can struggle with that. Right.

Yeah, sure. So I'm thinking about the prodigal son. I mean, he was in the father's house. He's in the family, but he decided he wanted to take his inheritance and use it his way. He had to come to a knowing, wait a minute, everything I need is back home.

Why am I doing it my way? And that's that's what what we all do at some point. We have to learn that. Yeah, absolutely. So you you through your struggles, you've seen God bring and you're identifying these certain things you've struggled with. That's a key right to to walk in and healing to have a healed heart. We have to come to grips with what what we struggle with.

Be willing to confess that and in some cases repent of that or ask forgiveness, maybe forgiveness from another. Right. Certainly.

In order to receive that healing, walk in the fullness that God asked for us. You mentioned identity. I had to pull something up.

I posted on social media just a day or two ago. Your identity is not what you do with your hands, but what you pursue with your heart. Wow.

Mike Bickel says right. And one of my favorite mentors. And certainly I can relate to what you're talking about. You know, the 20 year career in television for yourself. It's funny because when I got out of wrestling, people ask me, I still do. Oh, do you still watch wrestling? I'm like, no, actually, I don't.

They're like, like, for real. I go, no, I hear enough about it from all of you that I don't have to actually watch it for myself. But well, that's that's pretty amazing. I want to get I want to transition to or get to what I opened up the show with. You know, if God asked you to leave a 20 year career of something you're familiar with, something you're comfortable with, perhaps a tremendous salary, insurance and all the benefits and perks and the big house and everything. But he asked you to walk away from that. Would you do it? Well, you have a story because earlier this year in January of 2020, the Lord asked you, Frank, to walk away. You and your wife.

And I couldn't pronounce her name. Yes. OK. And yeah. How many children? Three children.

Three children. All right. So here we are.

You got a wife, you got three children, a solid 20 year career. And God says, walk away. Yes, sir. And how easy of a transition was that for you to say yes to God? It took years.

Let me let me go back to I think about 2015. So this is before we left and went to Indianapolis. I began to feel in my heart that I was called full time ministry and I began to map it out. I went into prayer and I wrote down some of the things were in my heart about evangelistic ministry and doing revivals and using entertainment venues to give people a place where they can come and hear the gospel message and doing things in the community. And I had all this written down and I thought it was go time.

And it wasn't. In fact, one of my mentors showed up one day and I asked him to pray for me and see if it was the right timing. I had that much wisdom, at least. And he comes to my house and he opens up a book and he says, hey, I'd never read this book before. Here in the book is a story about a guy who wanted to leave his career. And the Lord said, nope, you're not called to do that. He says, I literally opened the book to this page today and I was cut to the heart. I was offended.

I was hurt because I was so excited about the idea of putting a tent in my trunk and just going where the Lord told me, setting up a tent and preaching. That's what I wanted to do. And so fast forward. I gave up that dream.

And I think it was a God living it. So it is a God dream, but I didn't learn timing. So I just went wholeheartedly in the career. And that's when I started saying, OK, well, Lord, if you want me to be a Christian voice in media, that's what I'll be.

And I'll go to network. And so I'm my mind had shifted. And so it took years for him to get me back to where I was in 2015.

So 2020 January is when we launched out into this adventure. And it took, what is that, five, six years for God to get through to me again. No, you are called to that. So it was a process of me being broken from my kingdom building to his kingdom building. That's good.

That's good. So embracing his vision. Right. Embracing his vision. And the ministry is called Faith Fire Worldwide Revival Ministries. Faith. Well, that's a mouthful, man.

Come on. And in the introduction, I said you're a revivalist. But for those who may not know what a revivalist is, our listeners out there. Share with them what a revivalist is.

That's what God's now called you to. Well, if you're looking for a type in the Bible, Elijah would be revivalist. He comes to a nation that for years had been involved in idol worship. They called themselves the people of God, but their behavior, their hearts were far from him. And he had to confront them.

He had to confront them with the truth, but also confront them with the power of God. And I believe that's our calling. I believe what God has called us to do is to awaken the church.

I think many of us would agree the church has seen people leave because of varieties of reasons. But a lot of it has to do with we're doing a lot of good teaching, but we're not seeing a lot of impact. We're not seeing what we could be seeing. You know, people, when we talk about the Great Commission, the Great Commission comes with signs and wonders. It comes with miracles. Jesus even said some people won't believe unless they see miracles.

And some circles are teaching miracles don't happen anymore. And so we are here to just go wherever God sends us and encourage the church to go back to the Great Commission. That's the simple message. Well, and what resonates in hearing your story, Frank, is, and your willingness to step away from a 20-year career is the word obedience. Obedience.

And, you know, I sometimes will talk about in our Man Up conferences, in our Man Camps that Lex Luger and I facilitate, how do we walk this out, this journey out? Well, through radical or righteous obedience. And every time you say yes to God, it gets easier to say yes.

But every time you say no, it also gets easier to say no. And so I just, I commend you on, really, honestly, on just your courage to step out there and just to be obedient to the call upon your life. And I know even as a former, you might say performer on my level in wrestling, to walk away from that career not knowing what the Lord had for me at that point, but 11 months later finding out there was a call to ministry on my life, and the journey has been absolutely amazing.

I'm excited for you and for what the future holds for you. And I know you were mentioning, we had lunch together, and you were mentioning to me in our last minute here, that you were mentioning to me that the Lord's really spoken about taking that revivalist message around the world, right? Yes, sir. Yeah.

And I mean, that has a couple of layers. One is in person. We're called definitely to overseas missions. But indeed, in the broadcast realm, some form or fashion, we believe we're called to broadcast revival around the world. Not just stir it up, but show people.

Some people need to see what's going on. Well, that's awesome. Well, man, the time has gone quickly. It's been great to have you in the studio today. And so real quick, how can people find you? Faithfireworldwide.org.

Faithfireworldwide.org. Well, it has been such a joy and a pleasure to have you with us today. Mutual, my friend.

It is mutual. I am thankful the Lord crossed our paths together. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus. Well, I want to share a quick story with you as I like to do from week to week. This came in from Terry Deaton, actually off of Twitter, and just a simple little message he sent me.

He says, great when I check my Twitter and see your tweets. They're uplifting and at the same time make you think and reflect about what you are saying. So much so that I have to read it several times to take it all in with what you've written. Uplifting plus reflection equals spirituality. And so from Terry Deaton, hey, if you've got a story or you've got a message or somehow it's something I post on social media or something I say on this radio show, you can reach me through Koloff.org and email me one of your stories.

I would maybe love to share it on air sometime. And I just can't thank you enough for all of your loyal following, your loyal support. And I think back to all those days in wrestling and certainly what I'm doing now and even Frank here in the studio with us today, a 20-year career in television and seemingly had it all, but while at the same time he had a revelation that, you know what, your career made a platform for you, but now let's take all that experience in television, in front of cameras and on microphones, and now let's raise you up as a revivalist and get your voice and your message, your story of salvation, your story of healing, the struggles that you've overcome, and let's get that message out to the world. Well, you have a story, and if you don't have a story, today's the day to surrender your life to Jesus. You know why?

Because it is time to man up. If you want to follow me on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook, all of social media, just look up Nikita Koloff with the number one behind it and you'll find me and follow me. Men, I would like to challenge each of you to consider spending five days with Lex Luger and I at Man Camp, pursuing the heart of God. Ladies, if you're listening, we'll send your men home better equipped to be men of God, godly husbands and godly fathers.

That appeals to you. Give them your blessing and encourage them to sign up today at mancamp.info. Pastors, if you would like to bring Koloff for Christ Ministries and Man Up Conference to your community, go to koloff.org and email me.

Remember this, it's time to man up. Nikita Koloff here. If you're needing to buy a car and have marginal credit and considering using buy here, pay here, that's worse than taking the Russian sickle. Winston-Salem Motor Cars will put you behind the wheel of a car you can rely on while helping rebuild, repair or establish your credit score. Conveniently located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem, be sure to check them out today at wsmcthenumberone.com because you are number one. We so appreciate our listeners if you will support this program with a financial gift of any amount. I will send you a personalized copy of my latest book, Nikita, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Go to koloff.net, that's koloff.net, koloff.net, and make your contribution today. This is the Truth Network.